Commonwealth Chair-in-Office

The Commonwealth Chair-in-Office (CIO) is the Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth of Nations, and is one of the main leadership positions in the Commonwealth. It is held by the host chairperson of the previous Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), and is maintained until the next CHOGM.^[1] Fiamē Naomi Mata‘afa, Prime Minister of Samoa, is the current Chair-in-Office of the association since 25 October 2024.

Chair-in-Office of the Commonwealth of Nations
Incumbent Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa since 25 October 2024
Term length	2 years
Inaugural holder	Thabo Mbeki
Formation	12 November 1999
Website	Chair-in-Office

Overview

The primary responsibility of the Chair-in-Office is to host the CHOGM, but their roles can be expanded. For example, after the 2002 CHOGM, the incumbent, previous, and next Chairmen-in-Office formed a troika in an attempt to resolve the ongoing dispute over Zimbabwe's membership of the Commonwealth.

The position was created after the 1999 CHOGM, with Thabo Mbeki becoming the first Chair-in-Office. However, Mbeki did very little to develop the position,^{[citation needed]} leaving it virtually vacant until the next CHOGM in 2002, when the troika was created. Even after John Howard became Chair, the troika's first meeting was in London, in the presence of the Commonwealth Secretary-General.^{[citation needed]} The third Chair, Olusegun Obasanjo, did more to invigorate the role of the position after taking over in 2003.^[2]

From the assumption of the role at the 2009 CHOGM, representatives from Trinidad and Tobago, including the Prime Ministers, attended Commonwealth meetings, including 2011 Commonwealth Day celebrations where Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the first woman to chair the Commonwealth, gave the keynote address. Sri Lanka was due to host the Commonwealth Economic Forum in 2011 but it was held instead in Perth, Western Australia, due to accusations of war crimes committed during the Sri Lankan Civil War.^{[citation needed]}

As Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard succeeded Persad-Bissessar as the second female Chair at the 2011 CHOGM. Julia Gillard was in-turn succeeded by Kevin Rudd after she resigned as Prime Minister of Australia on 27 June 2013. Rudd went on to lose the Australian federal election in September 2013, and consequently was succeeded as Commonwealth's CiO by the new prime minister Tony Abbott. Abbott remained in the position until Commonwealth leaders met for the 23rd time on 15 November 2013, where he was succeeded by the President of Sri Lanka Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was succeeded by Maithripala Sirisena in 2015.^[3]

List of chairs-in-office

No.	Image	Name	Country	Title	CHOGM	Start	End	Secretary-General
1		Thabo Mbeki	South Africa	President	1999	12 November 1999	2 March 2002	Emeka Anyaoku
								Don McKinnon
2		John Howard	Australia	Prime Minister	2002	2 March 2002	5 December 2003
3		Olusegun Obasanjo	Nigeria	President	2003	5 December 2003	25 November 2005
4		Lawrence Gonzi	Malta	Prime Minister	2005	25 November 2005	23 November 2007
5		Yoweri Museveni	Uganda	President	2007	23 November 2007	27 November 2009
								Kamalesh Sharma
6		Patrick Manning[4]	Trinidad and Tobago	Prime Minister	2009	27 November 2009	25 May 2010[4]
7		Kamla Persad-Bissessar[5]				26 May 2010[5]	28 October 2011
8		Julia Gillard	Australia	Prime Minister	2011	28 October 2011	27 June 2013
9		Kevin Rudd				27 June 2013	18 September 2013
10		Tony Abbott				18 September 2013	15 November 2013
11		Mahinda Rajapaksa	Sri Lanka	President	2013	15 November 2013	9 January 2015
12		Maithripala Sirisena				9 January 2015	27 November 2015
13		Joseph Muscat	Malta	Prime Minister	2015	27 November 2015	19 April 2018
								Patricia Scotland
14		Theresa May	United Kingdom	Prime Minister	2018	19 April 2018	24 July 2019
15		Boris Johnson				24 July 2019	24 June 2022
16		Paul Kagame	Rwanda	President	2022	24 June 2022	25 October 2024
17		Fiamē Naomi Mataʻafa	Samoa	Prime Minister	2024	25 October 2024	Incumbent

Footnotes

1. "Our History". The Commonwealth. The Commonwealth. Archived from the original on 24 November 2015. Retrieved 25 November 2015.
2. Ingram, Derek (January 2004). "Abuja Notebook". The Round Table. 93 (373): 7–10. doi:10.1080/0035853042000188157.
3. WEERASINGHE, Chamikara. "President will be C' wealth Chairman for next two years - GL". Daily News.
4. "Former Trinidad PM Manning resigns as political leader". CaribbeanNetNews. 28 May 2010. Archived from the original on 28 July 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2010. Trinidad and Tobago's former prime minister Patrick Manning has handed in his resignation as political leader of the People's National Movement (PNM), three days after being defeated at the polls.
5. "Kamla now Commonwealth Chair". Trinidad and Tobago Newsday. 29 May 2010. Retrieved 29 May 2010. The position she has inherited from former prime minister Patrick Manning following the nation's hosting of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in November, 2009. In a statement issued yesterday, the Royal Commonwealth Society congratulated Persad-Bissessar on her appointment as Prime Minister and also praised the conduct of her election campaign.